According to Bolton, a treatment plan will be developed in the next seven-to-10 days, after swelling in the knee’s gone down. Until then, there’s no prognosis on a possible return.

Holden left Sunday’s game after colliding with Panamanian midfielder Alberto Quintero. Defending a counterattack out of Panama’s half, Holden’s left knee collided with Quintero, turning the U.S. international away from contact. After coming down on his right leg, Holden immediately fell to the turf, bringing his right knee to his chest in pain.

After being examined both in the field and on the sidelines, Holden was replaced by Mikkel Diskerud. The former Houston Dynamo midfielder, who has undergone two surgeries on this left knee in the last two-plus years, could be seen on the bench with his head in his hands before walking to Solider Field’s locker room.

From Bolton’s web site:

Following a detailed scan on Monday evening, the club can announce that Stuart Holden has been diagnosed with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee …

Holden will now consult with both the club’s and the national side’s medical staff to formulate a treatment plan.

Head of sports performance Mark Leather said: “We’ve got the scans and the results will be analysed by our specialists. We can then put an action plan in place over the next week to ten days when the initial swelling reduces.”

U.S. national team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, in a release distributed by U.S. Soccer:

“We are absolutely devastated for Stuart,” said U.S. head coach Jurgen Klinsmann. “He is such a great part of our team on the field and the locker room. He worked tremendously hard to recover from previous injuries and had really come back into form. He was fully prepared to head back to Bolton and challenge for a starting spot. Now he will have our full support as he goes down this road again, and we will be with him every step of the way.”

Holden, for his part, put out a positive message in response to the news:

Regardless, after you add in the broken leg Holden suffered in March 2010, this is the fourth major leg injury he’s suffered in the last three-plus years, the latest in a torrent of bad luck that has come to define the U.S. international’s career.

Wow, ouch. The more this happens, the more I wonder if we’ll ever see Holden fully healthy and in form again. After all the medical treatment Holden has seen, is there really any hope that he can stay healthy? I feel really sorry for the kid, he has so much potential, but every time he gets up to speed he gets injured, it seems.

Can’t help but to think this has something to do with Soldier Field. I know its in a huge market and the weather conditions ended up being perfect for some summer soccer, but out of major stadiums, it seems to have the worst field. The only stadiums I have heard more complaints about had terrible artificial surfaces (The old Vet in Philly, astrodome)

I liked the pre-renovation turf at Soldier Field, the one that they played the World Cup on in 1994. Jurgen Klinsmann remembers what that turf was like – he scored a game-winning goal on it. The turf they have there is lousy because it gets very little morning sun. If the stadium was 180 degrees to what it is now, it would be the best turf on the planet.

I would think this could be near the end for Holden. Some athletes are jinxed a bit and just have poor knees, whether rebuilt or not. The relative non-contact of this injury only makes it more apparent.

If it wasn’t for those injuries, Stu could’ve become one of the best American players to play in the Premier League, but sadly, I do agree with geojock. He will probably end up signing with Houston after his contract at Bolton is over.